Demonology Warlock Review - Battle for Azeroth Community Opinions

Throughout the pre-patch, we'll be launching a community opinions article for every class and spec. We're continuing our Battle for Azeroth Class Reviews and in this post, we'll be taking a look at the state of Demonology Warlock. See if this spec appeals to you in Battle for Azeroth!

We reached out to the Demonology Warlock community to give their thoughts and opinions on the changes and current state of the spec.

This overview of Demonology is put together by our guidewriter Not and Gutterball from Tarren Mill-EU who plays in <Security>, you can often find him exploring new ways to play Warlock and creating APLs for SimulationCraft to aid him in his quest.

This is a compilation of thoughts on Demonology in its current state and where we would like to see it go.

If you’d like to discuss Warlock in general more in depth please join the Discord or check out our first podcast over at https://www.twitch.tv/TerrynFred on August 4th @ 12PM CST / 6PM CDET where some of us will be discussing all things Warlock prior to BFA launching!Overall Thoughts

Gutterball: Overall I think the Demonology rotation is engaging and fluid enough that many of the talents that try adding something make it feel sort of clunky and disruptive. In particular Lance-fléaux bilieux, Invocation : démon abject and to an extent Destin funeste. They do not really add to the rotation overall nor do they increase spec complexity; these talents in my book get a 0 out of 5.

Not: The feel of Demonology is much more in line with where I believe it should be and certainly a much better feeling than playing it in Legion. I do think there is something missing when you start adding in talents that just slide in as “just another cast” instead of it flipping the rotation on its head and forcing new gameplay. There is really only 1 talent that does this, Portail de Néant, and it only happens while the talent is active. Overall I think Demonology talents are in a pretty good spot but there is room for improvement; 3 out of 5.

We are generally limited in terms of mob tagging and instant casts as our only on demand cast we have that can be reliably used is a talent, Destin funeste, and it takes away from more desired talents in that tier that could be used instead.

TalentsLooking more in detail about the talent rows in specific and what talents feel great and what talents feel not-so-great:

Level 30 – Appel démoniaque plays great as it adds many little things that you need to adjust your playstyle around and enables more interesting setups for Invocation : tyran démoniaque. Siphon de puissance is also a very fun talent to have and play with but it has some scaling issues that make it fall to the wayside in basically all aspects. Would like to see this talent have a more defining role in some capacity since the general flow of talents in this row is: single target, ???, multi-target.

Level 60 – This tier has some good options to keep gameplay active or simply increase output with little thought which plays nicely overall. From the Shadows is a nice “set it and forget it” talent that adds something basic to play around without having to deal with extra buttons to press. Soul Strike gives a main source of damage the ability to quickly change targets and provides the caster something instant to help with movement DPS. Invocation : démon abject is uninteresting and mostly comes into play with Portail de Néant due to it only costing 1 Soul Shard to summon.

Level 90 – This tier is a bit more contentious as two of the three talents don’t contribute to a modified rotation and one of those two almost has negative synergy with the fluid gameplay. Conducteur d’âme creates a lot of unpredictability in the rotation because you cannot safely have a Main de Gul’dan -> Trait démoniaque without possibly overcapping on Soul Shards especially when Météore démoniaque (Azerite Trait) is taken into account. Démons intérieurss is just there and has no interaction with gameplay. Since they changed Grimoire : Gangregarde it is a much much much less appealing talent mostly due to the cooldown being 2 minutes now; this cooldown lines up with nothing at all and just feels bad to play with because of it. They could easily adjust for this by retuning the damage modifier on the talent and reducing the cooldown back to 1.5 minutes.

Level 100 – There are some potentially interesting talents in this tier that do (or could) affect gameplay in interesting ways but there are some tweaks that could/should be made. Âmes sacrifiées is just a bland talent, affects nothing for gameplay and is just kind of there. Consomption démoniaque, if tuned properly (25% increased damage for a full energy Imp is close to proper tuning, or at least it is much better than what it was at previously, 15%), has the potential to allow players to focus on “playing the best” which would reward them greatly for properly executing consuming the right number of Wild Imps at the right time while also having the same downside if you consume improperly. Portail de Néant is interesting but it affects the opener by making it much slower and clunkier, this could be changed by removing (or reducing) the cost of casting the spell to allow for faster ramp.

Azerite TraitsThe Azerite traits available to Demonology are split between 3 good traits and 3 bad/boring traits:

The GoodMétéore démoniaque: Adds a little bit of extra RNG to the rotation in a similar vein as Conducteur d’âme however the trait is much better as it dissuades the fear of overcapping Soul Shards.

Commandant suprême: Gives Demonology a bit of a higher pace to the rotation by giving us a stack of Cœur démoniaque when our main cooldown expires and provides us the opportunity to play around this effect in AoE situations where you can get a massive stack of Wild Imps out ready to implode when Invocation : tyran démoniaque ends.

Potentiel explosif: While this is another AoE centric trait it does give us the ability to play around a buff and possibly modify the rotation in AoE depending on how big the Haste buff will be in the end.

The BadSavoir interdit: Introducing the Legion Fire Mage bracer effect to Demonology is really just not fun. Sitting there hardcasting a 4 second cast feels terrible for a fairly minimal gain.

Écorchure: This trait promotes unoptimized play where you have a playstyle of not pooling procs for things like From the Shadows or Invocation : tyran démoniaque because the duration of the buff is so short.

Brûlure ombreuse: Provides a single target gain on an AoE enabled spell, very bland. They should make this trait AoE on all targets hit by Main de Gul’dan.

Commentaires

Commentaire de Jingyy

Oh, i've been waiting for this. Currently demo for me personally feels very fun to play, but i doubt it will perform underwhelming at the end compared to affliction or destruction at cleave.

Commentaire de Hadoriel

on 2018-07-29T16:07:31-05:00

I'm probably one of the few that actively played and liked demo in Legion lol

That being said, this iteration is fun and fast-paced! I'm kinda tripping over my rotation, but getting the jist of it was easier than Legion demo. The big portal CD is a fun idea but feels like it's a little too difficult to get everything out of it unless you really focus on what you're doingI'm enjoying more demon summoning - but the imp counter on the UI vanished! I hope they bring that back? I'm usually gauging when to throw my imps in if I notice a crowd of them around me. It'd be better if I could see an actual number somewhere hehComing from Legion demo to this, my biggest hang up is being so used to empowering demons after summoning. I'll knock my rotation flow because I forget that's not a part of the spec anymore lol. I also get a little overwhelmed with procs all over the place, but it could be way worse - it just throws me off when I have too many proc'd shadow blasts or whatever but can't spend their generated shards fast enough

I do really enjoy the spec, overall, though. I liked it in Legion and like it now, too. Getting insta-cast demon puppies and big shadow blasts is really nice when it doesn't get overwhelming. Insta-cast puppies was a favorite PvP talent of mine in Legion. I think the spec is in a cool place!

Commentaire de Jacevandever

on 2018-07-29T16:24:47-05:00

It feels a lot smoother to play than the Legion version, definitely an overall improvement. I think it will still suffer from the same problems though, there is absolutely no target switching or multi-target damage like other DoT classes have (the demons are basically DoTs that have an obvious visual effect). And it still has probably the largest ramp-up time, of any spec in the game, before you start doing your full DPS, so it probably won't be anywhere near viable for something like mythic+.

It's totally outclassed for sustained AoE DPS by both Affliction and Destruction without any talents to augment it outside of one 30 second cooldown that has a similar effect to Rain of Fire. The only AoE spell you have is Implosion, which is definitely a burst-y spell, but for the burst to happen, you need to spend 6-9 Soul Shards to get enough imps out to do it, far from on-demand burst AoE. For a single boss encounter where there are no long phase changes or intermissions, it will probably be fine, but they are pretty rare. But the most important thing (IMO) is it's the most fun to play out of the three specs.

Commentaire de 1400571

on 2018-07-29T16:34:44-05:00

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Commentaire de Xalea

on 2018-07-29T16:39:02-05:00

Aff still does better DPS and has waaaay more survivability. The demons running around looks cool, but in reality, doesn't do much.

Commentaire de Automag

on 2018-07-29T17:00:47-05:00

I have heard a lot of good things about Demonology in BfA. Everyone I have talked to about it on Beta had mostly positive comments. If I didn't hate leveling so much, I would give one a try

Commentaire de silverage

on 2018-07-29T17:36:30-05:00

Demo feels nice. I hope it keeps up with the other specs in BfA.

Commentaire de SquirePip

on 2018-07-29T18:17:11-05:00

Aff still does better DPS and has waaaay more survivability. The demons running around looks cool, but in reality, doesn't do much.

looking cool is all that matters

Commentaire de Drakvul

on 2018-07-29T20:01:40-05:00

As a warlock main, demonology has always been my favorite spec. These new talents and abilities makes me feel like all my hard work on Argus has lead to something, in this case, us warlocks usurping control of the surviving demons from Sargeras. It feels good, which is at odds with other specs or classes who will likely feel like they lost power between expansions.

Plus Inner Demons and Nether Portal allows you to summon Prince Malchezaar, and the Eyes of Gul'dan from Nighthold.

I've been playing warlock since Wrath of the Lich King, so I'm used to them changing demonology every expansion. But I hope they look upon their work, and realize this is fun, and not hit it too hard with the nerf bat. In case they do though, and you want to have fun being a master summoner, try to stack mastery.

And hopefully Ion won't go "Demonology will be getting a 25% nerf across all abilities because we don't want you to play that spec anymore." Like in WoD. Still played it though, because there's something intensely satisfying with summoning legions of demons.

I agree with Squire above, Looking cool is all that matters.

Commentaire de Kegwa

on 2018-07-29T20:32:30-05:00

I have a lvl 91 demonology warlock and was wondering if I should change specs to continue the grind onwards and updwards. I can only play occasionally so most of my gameplay is questing. Any suggestions

Commentaire de Drakvul

on 2018-07-29T20:45:26-05:00

I have a lvl 91 demonology warlock and was wondering if I should change specs to continue the grind onwards and updwards. I can only play occasionally so most of my gameplay is questing. Any suggestions

Affliction has great survivability, so it might make questing easier if you're having trouble getting past certain mobs. But since you only play occasionally, and this is a video game, I'd suggest playing whichever spec you feel like is the most fun to play.

Personally I leveled as demonology last expansion and on BfA's beta.

Commentaire de ZippyWonderdog

on 2018-07-29T21:40:15-05:00

Pretty much just an "I agree" Demonology looks cool, is fun and flows pretty nicely. It seems like it will be fine for a raid boss encounter, but if I'm doing a M+ I will probably turn to Affliction.

Commentaire de Madlich

on 2018-07-29T23:38:13-05:00

Demo isn't fun anymore, maybe in pve, but in pvp it's an disaster. Everytime, when i try play with my demo lock on a bg, or play world pvp, i play the role "Target Dummy, who can't hit back". You can't just do anything, you are slow and squishy, and don't have dmg in this pre-patch. I enjoyed playing demo since wotlk, in Legion it was my main too, but i just can't enjoy this spec anymore. If Blizz do nothing about it BEFORE the release of BfA, then i must change my main...Shame...

Commentaire de TheLustful

on 2018-07-30T00:39:59-05:00

I mained Demo lock for a couple expansions, but once Legion came, I quickly switched to Destro. I HATED the playstyle of "Summon demons, buff demons, summon more, buff more." The new playstyle is different enough to actually feel fun and makes my warlock relevant again. Legion? You only mattered as far as buffing your demons. Now I'm actually doing damage myself again. I enjoy destro too much to switch from it, but I'll definitely level up my Dark Iron as a Demo Lock.

Commentaire de Dragonnan

on 2018-07-30T02:07:44-05:00

First of all, let me make this clear, so hopefully there won't be any misunderstandings: I do like it when talents add complexity and/or change the rotaton. However, I will never understand why it's a bad thing, if they don't. I feel the core rotation very fun and engaging, and the summoning talents (Vilefiend, bombers, etc.) just make it more fun for me, since I feel like I'm leading the fcking Burning Legion into battle. Not all active talents should change gameplay or make it more complex, in my opinion, sometimes it's just fun to summon/cast/do more things, until a certain point at least.

Commentaire de AshramWoW

on 2018-07-30T02:38:18-05:00

Great job whit new Demo. Love it ! So fun and good looking spec. Tho i miss Demonwrath- which i find huge loss for spec, especialy in PvP. Whit DW u had chanse to unstealt rogues n rest stealted classes.When they kitte ,which they do it alot u could generate soul shards and be prepared when they came out ( whit rdy burst ofc) and do some dmg while they running around pillar. Burning Rush talent in my opinion should be somehow reworked to be viable in pvp or add some pvp talent for a bit mobility. Yes we have gate and portal but thats so easily countered. -Plesure through Pain and Singe Magic imo should get completily changed. Be honest when u saw lock whit those talents? -Casting circle sound good ? Yeah it does...but 8 sec window whit 1.3 cast time, seems not worth it. Maybe insta cast or short like in legion 0.4 would make talent more viable.

Commentaire de KiwiAmetros

on 2018-07-30T03:22:45-05:00

Demonology has been a lot of fun in this new iteration, but switching targets is a pain as it requires a spellcast to redirect your temporary demons. I'd love to see them obey your "pet attack" ability alongside the permanent demon, or something to this effect.

Commentaire de Oxyia

on 2018-07-30T03:51:00-05:00

The rotation feels fun and engaging enough to play on single target, however it's far from being competitive with the other warlock specs both in terms of damage and flat out versatility in most scenarios, in my opinion. I imagine if they tune up the damage at 120 it will be fun to play in ST, but i cant really see myself playing it in high level M+ or multitarget raid fights though, as the damage ramp up time is quite high and there is very little in terms of target switching built into the spec. Even though it's not a major gamechanger, having us play with felguard effectively removes the ability to interrupt spellcasting from the toolkit, which is useful in many pve scenarios, giving us a stun instead when we already have shadowfury baseline (DR). I feel like they're definitely going the right way with demo compared to legion, now they gotta find a way to make it a viable choice for high level content, because at the moment in almost all scenarios we are just better off playing affly/destro in terms of performance.

Commentaire de lynchsta

on 2018-07-30T05:10:53-05:00

One word: Clunky! It's like a 1970's Volkswagen Beetle. Sure, it can get you from point A to point B, but it isn't pretty, it isn't smooth and it isn't fast.

Commentaire de FlyingToaster

on 2018-07-30T05:51:11-05:00

One word: Clunky! It's like a 1970's Volkswagen Beetle. Sure, it can get you from point A to point B, but it isn't pretty, it isn't smooth and it isn't fast.

Literally the opposite, lol. It feels really good and it looks good, the only problem is it doesn't deal enough damage.